Laws of Ancidium (Savage Stars Book 5) Read online

  Laws of Ancidium

  Savage Stars Book 5

  Anthony James

  © 2020 Anthony James

  All rights reserved

  The right of Anthony James to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed upon the subsequent purchaser

  Illustration © Tom Edwards

  TomEdwardsDesign.com

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Endings and New Beginnings

  Other Science Fiction Books by Anthony James

  Chapter One

  The Adamantine base on planet Lustre was lit by a hundred thousand frozen pinpoints of blue-tinted white. Staring at them on the battleship Fulcrum’s sensor feeds put Captain Carl Recker in mind of stars on a cold, crisp winter’s night.

  The romantic vision didn’t hold sway for long. Amongst the ground lights, the warship’s sensors detected the endless movement of vehicles and personnel. In the shipyard’s construction trenches, the partially completed hulls of three heavy cruisers were a hive of activity. Recker cast his mind back to the last time he’d been here. It felt like years and he couldn’t recall what had been in the trenches before.

  “No sign they’ve slowed down,” said Commander Daisy Aston.

  “Why would they?” asked Recker. “Unless we’re no longer at total war.”

  Something felt wrong and he couldn’t put his finger on it. He drummed his fingers on the edge of his console while his eyes jumped across the underside feeds.

  “We’re still waiting for clearance to land, sir,” said Lieutenant Adam Burner. “I guess nobody was expecting a 6300-metre Meklon battleship fitted with an experimental alien cannon to show up at a quarter to three in the morning. There’ll be a whole bunch of senior officers scrambling out of their beds right now and wondering what the hell is going on. If you hadn’t sent your clearance codes, the shooting would have started long ago.”

  “If they can’t handle the Fulcrum’s arrival, they’re going to soil their pants when we lead Sergeant Shadar and his Daklan soldiers down that forward ramp and onto the landing strip,” said Lieutenant Ken Eastwood.

  “Maybe we should leave Sergeant Shadar onboard,” said Aston. “Like we discussed.”

  “Those soldiers are coming with us,” said Recker firmly. “We’ve been away long enough for plenty to have changed. If the HPA isn’t on better terms with the Daklan I’ll have badly overestimated Admiral Telar.”

  “I wonder why he left the Topaz orbital to come back here,” said Lieutenant Jo Larson. “Maybe the threat level dropped,” she finished hopefully.

  “Our leaders should lead,” said Eastwood. “You can’t lead while you’re hiding on an orbital.”

  “It’s impossible to lead if you’re dead,” said Recker. “Anyway, the flight control mainframe confirmed Admiral Telar is the most senior officer on the Adamantine facility, so he’s come back, whatever the reason behind it.”

  “And that flight controller insists we hold at our current twenty-klick altitude, sir,” said Burner.

  Recker’s unease was making him tense and he rolled his shoulders. “How many HPA warships have you detected, Lieutenant?”

  “Five visible in the sky, sir, and there’ll be others blind side of the planet. They’re running comms silent and I won’t have access to their battle network until the Adamantine mainframe gives the all-clear.”

  “Five in the air and three others on the ground,” said Recker.

  His eyes rested on the 4000-metre shape of a battleship which he recognised as the Sledgehammer. The warship was almost a decade old, yet with little sign of surface scarring or repairs. Recker experienced a surge of anger – if you knew the right people in the HPA, you’d get all the cushy missions, while an out-of-favour warship captain would spend fifty percent of his or her active duty slingshotting planets to escape incoming Daklan missiles.

  “Didn’t miss this, huh?” said Aston.

  “I’m that obvious?”

  She smiled, though she still looked tired after being hit by the Extractor more than two weeks ago. “You might as well have tattooed your thoughts across your forehead, sir.”

  Recker smiled ruefully. “I’ll never make a diplomat.”

  “Definitely not, sir,” said Eastwood.

  “Nope,” added Burner.

  “I get the message.” Recker rubbed the smooth skin of his jaw. For much of the journey after acquiring the Fulcrum, the personnel onboard had lacked shaving facilities, since the Meklon either didn’t grow facial hair or hadn’t left any razor blades behind. Therefore, beards had grown untamed until Private Drawl had figured out to make the food replicator - of all things - produce an implement suitable for shaving.

  Recker cleared his throat. “I’m desperate to find out how much progress Admiral Telar has made in shaking up the military and leaving us sitting up here isn’t helping anyone.” He was tempted to cut through the red tape and request a direct comms link to his superior officer, but it was late and it seemed best to go through the proper channels.

  “There’s plenty of space for us to set down next to those two cruisers,” said Eastwood. “What the hell type are those, anyway?

  It was a question Recker had been asking himself. Both cruisers were fitted with additional armour which gave them a noticeably broader beam. They reminded him of his old heavy cruiser Axiom and that warship had been a tough, proud fighter. These two on Lustre didn’t look complete, as if they’d been called out of the trench a few weeks early.

  “Old hulls in new clothing,” said Recker. “Lieutenant Burner, see if you can find out their names.”

  “That will involve misuse of your command codes to query the flight database, sir.”

  “I’m authorised to access flight records.”

  “Not when you’re using the Fulcrum’s comms system to do it.”

  “I’ll deal with any crap that follows,” said Recker. No doubt the minor intrusion would flag up on the audit report, but he could handle the consequences.

  “You’re going to love this, sir,” said Burner, in the tones of a man who believed Recker was going to think exactly the opposite.

  “Tell me.”

  “You’re looking at the Earthbreaker and the Stonewall, sir.”

  The HPA had plenty of warships in a fleet which was afflicted by a high turnover. Recker thought he’d heard the two names before, but not with any significance attached.

  “I don’t understand,” he sa
id.

  “Earthbreaker and Stonewall are the names they presented to the flight mainframe, sir. Because I’m so thorough, I checked the handshake data packets as well. Those cruisers have undergone recent name changes but the local flight controller hasn’t been updated, so the warships are still broadcasting their original names to ensure there’re no security delays. Their new names are included as an entry in the handshakes.”

  From the expression on Burner’s face, Recker guessed this was going to be something he really didn’t want to hear. The sense of apprehension had become a clenching in his stomach. “What are their new names?”

  “Solanus-2 and Solanus-7, sir.”

  “What the hell?”

  “That’s what I thought,” said Burner.

  “Does this mean that Fleet Admiral Solan is planning to name every warship in the fleet after himself?” asked Eastwood angrily.

  “This is as much news to me as it is to you,” said Recker. He tried to keep his voice neutral and wasn’t sure if he succeeded. “Have they renamed the Sledgehammer as well?” he asked.

  “No, sir. The Sledgehammer is still the Sledgehammer.”

  “Something happened while we were away,” said Aston. “Maybe Admiral Telar wasn’t so successful in reforming the military as you hoped, sir.”

  “This feels wrong.” Recker thought back to his last meeting with Telar, to a time before the Galactar. The Admiral had warned that a change was coming, though Recker believed that upheaval was a more accurate term. Old guard versus new, in a battle to control the military – an internal conflict which would decide whether humanity pursued a fruitless war against the Daklan, or settled with this oldest of enemies in order to deal with the coming threat of the Lavorix.

  Recker didn’t for one moment regret his commitment to Admiral Telar’s new guard. His only regret was that Fleet Admiral Solan was such a craven incompetent that it had come to this.

  “When did the cruisers set down?” he asked.

  “Less than two hours ago, sir.”

  “Did anyone disembark?”

  “I don’t know. Once authorisation to land is granted, the flight controller monitors a warship until it sets down. After that, its work is done.”

  “What are they doing here?” Recker mused. “Get me a channel to Admiral Telar,” he said.

  “I’ll use your command codes again, sir.”

  “Please.”

  “No response from his office, sir. His desktop communicator should route to wherever it he’s sleeping, but he’s not answering.”

  “Must have it on silent,” said Eastwood. “That’s exactly what I would do.”

  “What about the officer on duty?” asked Recker. “Did anyone on the ground speak directly to the captain of the Earthbreaker or the Stonewall?”

  “I’ve checked,” said Burner. “Everything was handled by computer.”

  “What are you thinking, sir?” asked Aston.

  “Like I said, this feels wrong. You’re not sensing it?”

  “I don’t know. Ever since the Extractor, it’s like my senses have been dulled.”

  Recker saw the fear in her eyes. If her instinct, intuition and reflexes were permanently affected, she’d become a liability. The Extractor was a terrible weapon and one from which Recker had fully recovered, but only because he’d been lucky enough to be running on booster drugs at the time he was hit by it. Aston and the crew had lacked that protection.

  “Maybe we’ve been away so long that I’m jumpy,” Recker said unconvincingly. He forced a smile. “I’ve got nothing better to do than cause trouble.”

  Despite his laid-back attitude, Burner was like a terrier when it came to finding answers. “As you know, sir, the flight controller hands over a warship’s personnel list to the ground controller, which in turn allows those personnel to access role-relevant areas in the base.”

  “Yes,” said Recker impatiently. “Go on.”

  “It appears that someone with admiral level authority left the Earthbreaker an hour and a half ago, accompanied by a small party.”

  “Someone came for a secret meeting with Admiral Telar,” said Eastwood. “That’s why he’s not answering the comms.”

  “I don’t think that’s the case,” said Burner. “The ground controller won’t give me the name of the arriving admiral, so I found a Sergeant Orson Tracker, who leads one of the ground security forces. I’ve got him holding on the comms.”

  “I remember the man. Bring him in – open channel.”

  Burner raised a hand to indicate the link was made.

  “Captain Recker,” said Tracker.

  “Sergeant Tracker. I’d like to know who came off the Earthbreaker.”

  “Armed men, sir, led by a Captain Salvatore Alexander.”

  “Captain Alexander?” said Recker, momentarily caught unawares. “Last time I met him on the Maximus, he was ranked lieutenant.”

  “He’s not a lieutenant anymore, sir.”

  “Was Captain Alexander leading the party? I’m led to believe they were accompanied by an admiral.”

  “Not unless that admiral was hiding in a full combat suit and carrying a gauss rifle, sir.”

  Recker’s blood went cold. “How many were they?”

  “Thirty in total, sir.”

  “In which direction did Captain Alexander head, Sergeant?”

  “He didn’t tell me his destination – he commandeered one of the base transports, got in with his platoon and drove towards the admin section. Not only that, he left his own team to guard the Earthbreaker. My men and I were told to stay away and keep our noses out.”

  “That’s a breach of protocol, isn’t it, Sergeant?”

  “Yes, sir. I informed my superior officer.”

  “What was the result?”

  “I was told to follow Captain Alexander’s orders.”

  Recker detected unspoken words. “Is that what you expected to happen?”

  “No, sir,” Tracker hesitated before continuing. “I normally report to Lieutenant Joval, but he was replaced two days ago by someone new – a Lieutenant Ingersoll.”

  “Has Lieutenant Ingersoll worked on the Adamantine base for long?”

  “No, sir. I believe he came in from Earth shortly before he took over from Lieutenant Joval.” Tracker hesitated again. “Is something wrong, sir?”

  “Maybe. How far are you from the Earthbreaker and Stonewall?”

  “My squad and I are waiting on the Fulcrum’s clearance to land, sir. We’re sitting in a truck about a klick away.”

  “Stay there.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Recker cut the channel before Tracker could ask any more questions. He drummed his fingers again. “There could be an innocent explanation for this.”

  “Yes, sir,” said Eastwood, his voice dripping with doubt. “Two warships arrive in the dead of night, carrying an officer we know works closely with Fleet Admiral Solan – a man who disembarks with a heavily-armed squad of soldiers and heads into the base. Meanwhile, the experienced on-shift ground control officer is swapped with another officer recently arrived from Earth and who’s only had two days to learn how things work on Adamantine.”

  “You’re right, Lieutenant. It stinks,” said Recker.

  “What are they doing here?” asked Burner.

  The answer had been dangling in front of Recker all along and he swore loudly. “They’ve come for Admiral Telar,” he said.

  Chapter Two

  Further attempts to contact Admiral Telar failed. Usually, an inbound comm would be diverted to one of his team should Telar fail to answer. This time, nothing.

  “I’ve located the details for his personal communicator, sir!” said Burner in triumph. “I’m attempting a connection.”

  Recker drummed his fingers and waited. Twenty seconds later, Burner’s expression of triumph had become one of concern.

  “Damn, no answer.”

  “Admiral Telar is in danger,” said Recker. Saying the words out loud
removed any lingering trace of doubt that he might be jumping to conclusions.

  “We should raise the base alarm, sir,” said Aston.

  “Do it,” said Recker.

  “Uh, the ground control mainframe won’t accept my request, sir,” said Burner. “Even when I use your command codes.”

  With each new piece of information, Recker began to understand the extent of the preparations made by Admiral Telar’s enemies. He cursed his naivety – nobody could land a couple of warships on an HPA base and expect to march into the base commander’s quarters without laying the groundwork. The timing was such that it might already be too late to do anything about it, though Recker didn’t intend giving up.

  “Get me a real person on the comms,” he snapped. “I don’t care who it is.”

  “There’s nobody answering in the ground control station, sir.”

  “This has got to have been months in the making,” said Recker. He crashed his fist onto the edge of his seat. “It’s time to take matters into our own hands.”

  “What’s the plan, sir?” said Aston.

  Recker was still thinking up the details, but he already knew one order to give.

  “Lieutenant Burner, I want our soldiers mustered at the forward airlock. Advise Sergeants Vance and Shadar to prepare for trouble.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “This is HPA politics, so don’t give too much away.”

  While Burner got on the comms, Recker focused his gaze on the underside sensor feeds. The Earthbreaker and Stonewall were parked at the nearest edge of the landing strip to the admin section – more evidence of advance planning - leaving plenty of room for a warship like the Fulcrum to set down farther away from the built-up areas of Adamantine. That would result in a long journey to the closest buildings and a much longer one to Admiral Telar’s quarters. Setting down on the inhabited part of the base was out of the question, but Recker spotted a possible location into which the Fulcrum might just about fit. He told Aston and she nodded.